Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

In the book, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch is dying from pancreatic cancer and is only given a few months to live. With the time he has left, he makes it his priority to spend it wisely. Pausch states that he has an engineering problem and he’s going to do his best with his limited resources. His engineering problem is his health. Even though his body is failing him, he is going to push through and overcome the new obstacles he is facing in life. Pausch is also faced with “brick walls” but he doesn’t give up when things get tough. He uses the brick walls as an opportunity to show how badly he wants whatever is blocking his path. My “engineering problem” is being able to afford college for as long as I can. I’d say that my “brick walls”

“Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?” That is how Professor Randy Pausch, from Carnegie Mellon, began his last lecture, a speech entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” while in fact he was dying of Pancreatic Cancer. He knew he only had months left to live and put together this last lecture to read to his students. His lecture focuses in on points such as the importance of: making sincere apologies, not whining, being gracious and being humble. To stress his thoughts and views on life and following one’s dreams, Randy Pausch used a great amount of repetition, metaphors, allusion, humor, ethos, and pathos in his last lecture.

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand” (Albert Einstein). Life is an item that most people do not understand. People ask others to answer what they want, instead of experiencing it for themselves; however, mentors help a person get through the difficult points in life with some life lessons. Though life lessons do not unlock all the secrets to life, they help people understand life a little better.

What would you do if you had limited time left to live? Many people take life for granted but when their life is suddenly compressed into a matter of weeks left, they soon realize the beauty of life and how they lived it. In response to his restricted time left caused by pancreatic cancer, writer Randy Pausch argues that life should be lived to the fullest in his book The Last Lecture.He effectively builds his claim through the use of pathos, allusions to literature, and metaphors.

In the novel, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow, Pausch recalls painting his bedroom walls after the permission of his parents. If my parents gave me permission to paint my bedroom walls, I would first paint on my favorite quotes on one wall. They could be quotes from my favorite books, movies, or important historical figures. For example, Mahatma Gandhi’s quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” is a quote that I have to remember to follow when I am afraid to become a leader and change what needs to be changed in life. Basically, the quotes would be up on the wall just so I can look at them everyday for inspiration, or when I need them when I hit rock bottom. In addition, I would paint on all the ideas and hobbies

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” This was the mantra Randy Pausch lived by in his terminating life. In his book, which I learned the quote from, he talked about many challenges he overcame throughout his life. The largest obstacle I have had to overcome is the challenge of being a part of many extracurricular activities while maintaining above average grades in my rigorous schedule throughout the years.

I completely agree with how Randy explains the proper apology because I feel without these things the apology is dead, and isn’t coming from your heart. In the story there was an example of how Randy’s wife, Jai, caused a dent in his car and was apologizing to him about it. She thought he would be so upset about it, but instead Randy told her, “my parents raised me to recognize that automobiles are to get you from point A to point B.” so instead of getting the dent removed Randy and Jai decides to ride around with the dent. They say that the dented cars became a statement in their marriage that not everything needs to be

In Proslogion, Anselm argues God’s existence using what has come to be known as the ontological argument. Using the ontological argument, Anselm disproves “the fools” belief that there is no God. However, Anselm does not give enough backing to his arguments. This is particularly true in the fourth point, that it is conceivable that God exists in reality. Although I agree with Anselm, he gives no evidence to support why it is conceivable that God truly exists in reality. Anselm immediately goes from saying how it means more if something exists in reality and understanding than just in the understanding to immediately saying that the fool can conceive that God exists in reality. The

In the novel, “A Hope in the Unseen” written by Ron Suskind explains the journey of Cedric Jennings from the Inner City to the Ivy League. Throughout his journey Cedric Jennings has had to navigate many challenges first at Ballou High School, then MIT in the summer, and finally at Brown University. During his High school career at Ballou he received many backlash from his peers because of his devotion to his studies. In Ballou High School, “the school’s dropout/transfer rate at nearly 50 percent, it’s understandable that kids at Ballou act as though they’re just passing through”(Suskind 3) but not Cedric. He had a determination like no other to succeed academically where he would often stay after to finish his homework and work on SAT practice

In the period of enlightenment, many people lived by certain ideals and traits that people lived by. There were ideals such as hard work, setting goals for themselves, getting an education, questioning why things occur, using logic and reason. and self improving for the improvement of society. Just as people during the enlightenment practiced these ideals, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, expresses similar traits of honesty, hard work, gratitude, patience, humility, and self improvement in his speech titled as the “Last Lecture”. Pausch persuade the audience to follow basic principles like that of the Enlightenment through his tone, his intended audience, his purpose, ethos, pathos, and diction.

Randy Pausch being put down with bad news all the time what can you do to bring you up you let go and face reality there is nothing you can do to fix it but hope for the best but even that is not enough to be satisfying in today life but what can you do there not a lot you can do to fix your problem but you can try with the time you have left to be close to your family but with Randy he decided to make a presentation instead of focusing on his family and he wrote a great book telling his live to his kids and the world show how he became to be the man that once had everything he can wish for turn around now has nothing in this world. He now losing everything little by little it’s sad to go down like this when you have kids that will not remember

4. The title of the book The Last Lecture is pretty self-explanatory. Randy Pausch, the author of the novel, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is to kill him in a short amount of time. The title “The Last Lecture” simply stands for the last lecture he gave at Carnegie Melon University. Pausch says, “The obvious part is being with, and taking care of, my family. While I still can, I embrace every moment with them, and do the logistical things necessary to ease their path into a life without me. The less obvious part is how to teach my children what I would have taught them over the next twenty years. They are too young now to have those conversations. All parents want to teach their children right from wrong, what we think is important, and how to deal with the challenges life will

At the beginning of this semester, I would never have imagined that a book I was being forced to read for a Dual Credit English course would end up meaning so much to me, or touch me in the way that it did. Reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch touched my heart in more ways than just one and opened my mind to many new ideas. In this book, Randy finds out he is dying of cancer, and his whole world is flipped around. He comes to the realization that his time on Earth in finite and coming to a close. Randy became determined to use his last bit of time he had alive on Earth in a positive way and in a way that would leave a positive impact behind for his family, friends, coworkers and everyone in between.

The most inspiring part of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" was his attitude. The way he started out by saying he was not their to talk about his cancer or his family and the way he focused on such a basic thought, as childhood dreams and their importance, was highly insightful. Mr. Pausch wasn't dwelling on what he has yet to do, but instead focuses on the dreams he has already achieved. When he spoke of being offered the job as a Disney Imagineer and turning it down, that was a very empowering decision. He had the ability to achieve one of his childhood dreams and chose not to. It shows how we can adapt those childhood dreams to our lives as we grow and become different things throughout our lives.

some of my best lessons have come from others. One thing I learned is that being a good listener will make people want